The museum was opened in 1990.
Permanent exhibition area: 667 sq.m.
Number of museum objects on display: 1380.
Restoration project by V.Kaliečyc.
Scientific concept of the exhibition by H.Ladzisava and M.Nikalajeŭ.
Artistic setting by S.Dzmitryjeŭ and I.Kuržalaŭ.
The Museum of the Belarusian Book-Printing is one of the 11 museums of Polack National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. Its permanent exhibition is housed in the former residential building of Epiphany Monastery, which is an architectural monument of the 18th century.
The Museum opened its doors to visitors on September 8, 1990, during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the first Belarusian and Eastern Slavic book-printer, famous Polack native Francysk Skaryna.
These days the Museum of Belarusian Book-Printing is the only museum to cover knowledge of Belarusian book history and technology of book-making. It acquires and maintains monuments of book culture from manuscript scroll books to modern editions. It gives the insight into the history of writing systems, writing implements, book illustration and printing industry.
For those who want to discover the process of creation of manuscripts, a workshop of a scribe – scriptorium – has been reconstructed. There you can see a monk-copyist with a feather in his hand bending his head over the desk, tracing out every letter till a book will be rewritten. To have an idea of how early printed books were created, you are welcome to the reconstructed printing house of the 16th-17th centuries, where a typesetter and a printer work devotedly. Also in the museum there is the interior of a scientist’s cabinet of the 17th-18th centuries, the artist-illustrator’s studio, ancient furniture and much more.
